I have not heard much about workshops in the classroom. I remember in high school some teachers would give us free reign and allow us to work on our papers in class. These days always seemed very unstructured to me. I always felt that the teacher was having a "lazy day". Some teachers would allow us to work with one or two other students. Most of the time the teachers wanted the class to be silent. I never thought that these sessions were helpful. I feel that using a workshop in the middle school would be chaotic. I have no clue how a teacher would be able to manage a classroom workshop. How would a teacher keep the students on task? Before reading this article I think that work-shopping seems like a very bad idea. In my reading I will keep and open mind. I may even love the concept. I am very interested in reading Atwell's ideas about work-shopping and learning her framework.